The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide

by Emma Smith

Are you studying Shakespeare and looking for a handy summary of plots, characters and interpretations? Or are you a keen theatregoer wanting essential background on the Shakespeare plays you see on stage? Ideal for students and theatre enthusiasts alike, this lively and authoritative guide presents key information, clearly set out, on all Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic works, covering plots and people, sources, context, performance history and major themes. Ordered alphabetically for easy reference, each play entry features a 'key facts' box providing informative and revealing statistics, including a breakdown of each play's major roles. The guide is illustrated with striking performance photographs throughout, and also provides brief accounts of Shakespeare's life and language, Shakespeare in print and theatre in Shakespeare's time. This is an indispensable reference source for all students and theatregoers.

Genres: Theatre

258 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2012

About the author

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Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford. She has lectured widely in the UK and beyond on the First Folio and on Shakespeare and early modern drama. Her research interests include the methodology of writing about theatre, and developing analogies between cinema, film theory and early modern performance. Her recent publications include Macbeth: Language and Writing (2013), The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide (Cambridge, 2012) and Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (2016).

Reviews

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful introduction in the sence of Wikipedia articles nicely put together.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a friends begin discovering Shakespeare and want a book to ease themselves in, this is one of the books that will do the trick.